Sunshine, Daisies, Butterfly Puppies
by FlyingMouse
Summary: Hermione has created a special wand that can summon characters from her favorite books. Unfortunately, the wand gets into the wrong hands, and puppies with butterfly-winged ears are summoned from a random book. These butterfly puppies have the power to cause intense passion between two people. And they are after Hermione and Draco.
1. Flowers Grow on Hermione's Forehead

There was a bang at Hermione's door.

"Granger! Let me in!"

Hermione looked up from her laptop and rolled her eyes. Leave it to Draco to interrupt her from writing her research grant. She got up and stomped to open the door of her apartment.

"Malfoy, you better not be afflicted with—wahh!" A beam of silver light had struck her forehead. She stumbled backwards, tripped, and landed on her elbows with a thud. She looked up, eyes wide at the man snickering at her. Draco Malfoy's eyes were glowing. Literally, the grey-blue color of his eyes were now a complete silver. And apparently, he had just zapped her with silver laser beams coming from his eyes. "What the hell?!" Hermione jumped up to her feet, half-glowering, half-shocked.

"That's what you get for making flowers grow on my liver!" Draco was smirking. "I just came from the Barkson Hospital. Galvin Barkson had his Yapillon pet inject in me something that let's me do this." Silver laser beams emitted from his eyes again, but this time, Hermione jumped aside and dodged them. The beams hit the back of her wall, causing silver flowers to suddenly grow where they hit.

Hermione flinched. She touched her forehead. She felt flowers. "Oh my gosh. You just made flowers grow on my head, didn't you?!"

Draco crossed his arms. The smirk never left his face, and his silver eyes only enhanced the seductiveness of his smirk. "That's payback for when you released those Yapillons on me. Those things caused flowers to grow on my liver!" He leaned forward and spoke at her face. "On my liver, Granger!"

She pushed his shoulder sharply. "Those Yapillons also _healed_ you! Galvin Barkson was supposed to have his Yapillon, Pokey, stop those flowers from growing all over your organs!"

Draco laughed. "Galvin Barkson is the man."

"Wait…did he have his Yapillon give you those silver eyes on purpose?!"

"Yep. He told me he wanted to get revenge on your for bringing him into our wizarding world, and I agreed to help him do so, since there's nothing more that I love than to see you struggle. So he gave me these silver eyes, and to strike you with them."

Hermione crossed her arms. "Really? This is how you repay me for helping purebloods like you? I brought Galvin, his family, and their Yapillons into our world so that they can help purebloods like you! And this is how you repay me?"

Yesterday, Hermione had completed making Organink, a magical ink potion she had been making. When writers wrote their stories with Organink, the writers would be able to use the Organink Wand, which is the only wand that could summon the characters out of their stories and bring them into the real world. The first writer to have written a story with Organink was M.B., who was also a Healer who worked in the same lab with her. Her story was about genetically modified animals, and one of the animals was the Yapillon, which was a Papillon dog breed that had giant monarch butterfly wings as their ears. According to her story, Yapillons could exhale chemicals that caused flowers to grow on your organs.

However, these Yapillons were not the first characters to have been summoned from M.B.'s book with the Organink Wand. Apparently, some unknown person had broken into the lab and used the Organink Wand to summon Cobrazors from M.B.'s book. The Cobrazors were 10-foot-long purple cobras with three-pronged tongues and three-pronged tails. They have been wandering around the wizarding world, stabbing wizards with their razor-sharp, three-pronged tongues, causing them to acquire Black Bile Syndrome. Black Bile Syndrome was a condition in which blood would turn thick and black, and then rapidly start leaking out of the nostrils, mouths, ears, and any opening in the body. Only the Yapillons had the power to cure Black Bile Syndrome, so Hermione and M.B. summoned four Yapillons from her book, as well as the humans who took care of each Yapillon so that they could keep the creatures under control. In her book, M.B. had named these humans "the Barkson family," and they consisted of a married couple with three children, two of which were Healers just like the parents were. The Barkson family was running the Barkson Hospital, where pureblood wizards afflicted with Black Bile Syndrome had to visit in order to be cured by the Barksons' Yapillons.

"These Yapillons, these butterfly-eared pups, are the only creatures that can cure Black Bile Syndrome," said Hermione, narrowing her eyes at Draco. "And considering that only Purebloods can catch Black Bile Syndrome, you ought to think of me as your hero."

And she slammed the door in his face.

A few hours later, Hermione found herself lying on her back, on a grassy a meadow with Draco lying to her left. She was smiling at him, and he was smiling at her. She giggled as he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. Such soft hands. Above them, little Yapillons were hovering around them, their butterfly-winged ears fluttering to keep them in midair. They were yapping and exhaling a yellow mist that smelled like lemon and honey. Hermione let out a long sigh. She had never felt so content. She rolled over to her side, grabbed Draco's face with her hands, and pressed her lips against his. Draco wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and before she noticed it, the two of them were rolling across the grassy meadow, kissing and smooching like crazy. The Yapillons fluttered after them, yapping and releasing their yellow mist from their mouths and butterfly-winged ears. Draco and Hermione rolled down a great hill, and then crashed into a picnic table where Harry and Ginny were sitting.

Hermione instantly sat up in her bed, breathing heavily.

"Oh, Merlin…." Hermione looked around wildly. It was all a dream. But her head was throbbing. Her heart was pounding. She could still feel Draco's lips against hers, and she felt an intense longing to be rolling down the grassy meadow with him again. Her heart ached that it was all just a dream. Why?! Why wasn't it real?!

"Dammit, get a hold of yourself!" Hermione snapped at herself, grabbing her head. Why on earth was she suddenly craving to be around Draco?! She looked across her room and saw herself in the mirror. The silver flowers on her head were glowing. "It must be the power of these flowers. I must see the Barksons tomorrow and have them rid me of these horrible plants at once."


	2. When Doctors Laugh at Patients' Misery

"What do you mean, you won't remove these?!" Hermione screamed.

Galvin Barkson faced her from behind his desk, leaning back in his chair with Pokey, his Yapillon, sitting in his lap. The 21-year-old man had spiky, orange hair, and a smug smile on his face. "Sorry, Hermie. Like Draco told you yesterday, I had him do that to you to pay you back for bringing me outta my world and into yours. Oh, and also payback for telling my sister's Yapillon to bite Draco. The poor guy had flowers growing outta his liver after that."

Hermione leaned forward, glaring at him, ignoring how stupid she must look with three silver flowers sticking out of her forehead while she spoke. "Wow. You're just as bad as Malfoy. Maybe even worse, since you're actually refusing to help a patient in need here."

Pokey let out a series of yaps and growls.

Galvin snickered. "Pokey says you're technically not a patient since you aren't really sick."

"These flowers on my head are making me crave Draco like I'm some lovesick puppy!" Hermione snapped. "I'm sicker than I've ever been before!" She tried to block out the image of herself kissing Draco madly on that grassy meadow, with cute little Yapillons circling above them.

"Haha!" Galvin laughed. He leaned forward and placed his hand on hers. He gave a seductive sideways smile. "Well I have a treatment plan for you, honey," he spoke in a smooth voice. "Go and make out with Draco, and release the lovesick tension that's flowing in your veins!"

Hermione yanked her hand out of his grip and stood up instantly. "Urgh! You're no help at all!"

She whirled around and stomped out the door of his office, cursing under her breath as Galvin and Pokey continued laughing at her.

She slammed the door behind her, bumping a tall, thin girl who was also carrying a Yapillon.

"Oops…sorry, Lexa," said Hermione. She faced the girl. Lexa Barkson had the same orange hair as her brother, except hers was wavy and hanging past her shoulders. The 16-year-old character from M.B.'s book had her typical, wide-eyed, anxious look on her face.

"I-it's okay, Ms. Granger," she stuttered. "I-is my brother g-g-giving you a hard t-time?"

Hermione huffed. "He won't remove these flowers from my forehead. Do you mind?"

Lexa blinked a couple times. She exchanged glances with her Yapillon. The little dog barked a couple times, and then Lexa shuddered. She spoke without making eye contact with Hermione. "Oof. O-okay. Um….Penny says she knows how to remove those flowers on your head. B-b-but it's going to be an expensive treatment."

Hermione nodded. "It's fine. Anything to stop me from falling in love with…with _him."_

Later that afternoon, Hermione walked out of her hospital room with Lexa and Penny the Yapillon by her side. The flowers were no longer present on her forehead.

She turned to Lexa and smiled. "Thank you so much, Dr. Barkson."

Penny barked a few times before Lexa could respond. The side of Lexa's lip twitched, and then she gave a nervous smile. "Hah. Penny says you should just call me, my brother, and my parents by our first names. Since all of us are 'Dr. Barkson.'"

Hermione chuckled. "Will do."

"Also! Sorry for looking like a nervous wreck during your treatment," Lexa said. "I get soooo worried my Yapillon is going to fail whenever I see another patient."

Hermione laughed. "Lexa! Penny has healed every single Pureblood that has seen you guys! I don't think any patient that sees you should be worried about you failing them."

"I'll never be as good as my brother," Lexa looked at the floor, eyes wide and scared again. "Galvin doesn't even train Pokey, and they still heal Purebloods so well. Penny and I have to rigorously study and train to keep her healing powers strong enough. But Galvin doesn't even train Pokey. They are always out partying with you wizards, and yet, Pokey still manages to keep his powers stronger than ever, successfully healing many Purebloods. I can't do that."

Penny whimpered in agreement.

Hermione huffed. "Hey, well your hard work pays off, and that's what matters most."

"HAH! Your hard work ain't gonna pay off this time!"

Hermione turned at the sound of a drawling voice. Behind her, Draco and Galvin were walking down the hospital hall, with Pokey fluttering beside Galvin's shoulder. They were making their way up to the two girls. Both Draco and Galvin were smirking.

"Ugh," Hermione narrowed her eyes. She was thankful that the flowers were no longer on her forehead, otherwise, she would have thrown herself at Draco.

Galvin was the first to speak. "Lexa!" He stuck his chin at his sister. "Your pup may not have failed, but she sure wasted a lot of energy healing Hermie here." He playfully pinched Hermione's hip.

Hermione smacked his forearm. "Don't you dare touch me. What do you mean, she wasted her healing energy on me?"

A beam of silver light struck her forehead again and she jumped back. She turned to see Draco grinning, his silver eyes glowing. "Take that, Granger."

Hermione touched her forehead and felt flowers on her head again. "You foul ferret…" she spoke through gritted teeth.

Galvin laughed and hit Draco on the back. "Nice shot, man! Now she has five flowers instead of three! She's totally gonna want you know."

"No she's not!" Lexa screamed, a little too loudly, making Hermione flinch. The girl had such a high-pitched voice. "Penny and I can heal her again!"

Pokey fluttered forward and yapped, releasing an orange mist that instantly got sucked into the silver flowers on Hermione's forehead.

Galvin grinned. "There ya go. Pokey just gave you Amorabloom. It's a chemical that will keep love-inducing flowers permanently alive and unaffected by any superpower."

"You're a liar!" Yelled Hermione. "M.B. wrote in her story that anything inflicted by Yapillons can be cured by Yapillons!"

Draco laughed. "Yeah, but only Pokey can summon Amorabloom, so only he has the ability to reverse the lovespell effect now. Penny can't help you, and neither can any of the Yapillons of their parents."

Lexa let out a cry and hugged Hermione tightly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Hermione! I'm sorry I can't help you!"

Draco winked at Hermione, who was already beginning to feel sexually aroused at the sight of the white-blond, silver-eyed pureblood. "We're gonna be over at Blaise's tonight for a party. Catch me if you can."

Hermione watched as Draco, Galvin, and Pokey exited the doors to their right, and met up with Blaise, Pansy, and a noisy crowd of young purebloods. She was furious. But at the same time, she was oh so turned on. "Lexa…" her voice was distant. "Y-you've got to help me. We have to get Pokey and force him to take this effect off of me."

Lexa was clenching her teeth and biting her nails so rapidly that she was drawing blood at her fingertips. "Urgh, I hate my brother so much." She grabbed Hermione's shoulder and dug her fingers into them. "Don't worry, Hermione. I'll totally help you."

Hermione would have flinched from Lexa's angry grip, but she felt so transfixed. She couldn't take her eyes off of Draco. She watched him laugh and joke around as Blaise, Pansy, and the other purebloods surrounded him, complimenting his silver eyes and petting Pokey, who hovered between Draco and Galvin. Hermione longed to join them, just to be closer to Draco, just to look into those stunning, silver eyes. Eventually, her rage was completely replaced by an intense desire for intimacy.


	3. Pansies Grow on Pansy's Panties

"Mr. and Mrs. Barkson, pardon me for being brash, but you've GOT to get your son's dog to take these flowers off my forehead," Hermione was standing behind Zeff and Milette Barkson, who were watching their Yapillons fluttering over an unconscious pureblood body whose chest was cut open. Hermione struggled to keep her eyes off the carnivorous fly-traps that were growing on the patient's beating heart. The plants were chomping everywhere, but the two Yapillons were exhaling a yellow mist that was slowly making the carnivorous fly-traps become browner and frailer.

Zeff Barkson, a tall, slender man with slick, blazing-orange hair and square-rimmed glasses, looked over his shoulder to grin at Hermione. "Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Galvin and Pokey pulling up pranks again?"

Hermione nodded. "He had his Yapillon give Draco these…gorgeous, silver eyes…" her voice trailed off, as unavoidable images of Draco, shirtless, suddenly flooded her brain. "…and…those silver eyes…grew these flowers…on my forehead….and now I can't stop thinking about him…."

Zeff chuckled. "Ah, looks like Galvin made Pokey give Draco some Bedazzlebuds."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Bedazzlebuds?"

Zeff nodded. "They are tiny, microscopic buds that glow silver, so if you were to take a blood sample from Mr. Malfoy, you would see some silver sparkles in his blood."

Hermione could feel her own blood sizzle and spark as she heard those words. She forced herself to pay attention to the rest of what Zeff had to say.

"Those buds, however, do not blossom in his own blood. For those buds to blossom into flowers, they must be mixed with blood from two different people."

Lexa, who was standing beside Hermione with Penny fluttering by her shoulder, gasped. "So that's why when those silver beams struck Hermione, flowers sprouted from her head!"

"Yep," said Zeff. "Those Bedazzlebuds travel on light beams that emit from the iris of the person's eyes, and once they hit the skin of a target person, the buds seep through the pores of the skin, mix with the blood of the target, and then sprout as silver flowers from the blood and through the skin pores. Those flowers also have some chemicals that mess up the target's brain chemistry so that the target person ends up unavoidably falling in love with the person from whom the flower buds came from."

Hermione felt her head spinning. Images of Draco were continuously to fill her mind, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking about him. "Ugh…so that's why I'm so in love with that…that…foul, obstinate…..sexy, scandalous…." Hermione shook herself. "Ugh! I can't believe myself! Is there any way you can get Galvin Yapillon to reverse this effect? Is it true that Pokey is the only Yapillon that can heal both of us?"

"Unfortunately, yes," sighed Zeff. "And…I'm afraid Milette and I won't be able to be of much help. Yapillons will only listen to their human masters they are paired with. So Milette's Yapillon, Plutarco," he nodded to one of the Yapillons hovering over his patient, "he will only listen to Milette and no one else. My Yapillon Piper," he nodded to the other Yapillon fluttering beside the patient, "well, she's even feistier than Pokey, actually, so she doesn't always listen to me, but I'm the only human she will take orders from, if she ever wants to follow any orders, that is," he laughed. "So I'm afraid if you want to get Pokey to heal you both, you gotta make Galvin order him to do so." He then threw his head back and laughed louder. "Good luck getting my son to listen to you! I'd love to see Galvin be open to reversing any feelings of sexual arousal in a female! Especially a nice-looking one like yourself! I'm surprised he didn't want to give himself some Bedazzlebud and make you chase after him instead!"

"Dad!" Lexa's high-pitched voice made Hermione flinch. "This isn't funny! Hermione's brainwashed and all she can think about is having sex with that awful blonde guy, who's just as bad, if not worse, than Galvin! You've got to save her!"

Hermione winced, coming back to her senses. "Excuse me, but I'm not 'brainwashed'—"

"You should fire Galvin!" Lexa interrupted Hermione, her eyes wide, but this time with rage rather than fear. "He shouldn't be working here! He and Pokey just party with purebloods while Penny and I work our butts off in both the 1st and 2nd floors of this hospital!"

"That is an invalid statement," Milette Barkson spoke in an emotionless, robotic tone, without turning to face her daughter. "Your brother's Yapillon is responsible for healing Black Bile from 26 purebloods. He did so about one hour ago. The two of them currently have the highest healing record in our family."

Hermione gazed at Milette. The lady was also quite tall, but even lankier than her husband. She had the same color of blazing-orange hair and pale skin, but she wore glasses that were rather narrow with sharp edges.

Then Hermione gazed at Lexa, who was fuming. If Lexa's face wasn't so red with anger, and if Lexa just put on some narrow, sharp-edged glasses, she would look like a shorter version of her mother.

"Ugh!" Lexa pulled her hair. "Mom, dad, might I remind you that half the patients that Galvin sees are women around his age? He's been hooking up with every single female that he's healed so far! He's bribing them with sex!"

"Your brother isn't the one bribing them," said Milette in her nonchalant tone. "The pureblood females get him to heal them because they promise to sleep with him afterward."

Hermione widened her eyebrows. "Oh, Merlin. So that's the only reason why Galvin heals so many patients in such a short time? Because he's excited to have sex with them when they're all better?!"

"Yes." Milette replied without a hint of emotion in her voice or her face.

Hermione frowned at the lady. Milette didn't take her eyes off her Yapillon once. Hermione cleared her throat and spoke to her. "Well…shouldn't you be concerned about your son's behavior?"

"Yes," repeated Milette in the same, robotic tone.

Hermione waited for her to say more, but the gangly lady remained silent, eyes focused on her Yapillon as he exhaled some more yellow mist at the patient's chest.

Hermione huffed. "So why aren't you doing anything about Galvin? I could surely use your help, convincing him to reverse this effect on me!"

The room suddenly exploded with yellow dust. Suddenly, Piper and Plutarco, the two Yapillons above the patient's chest, were yapping at each other rapidly, shooting out yellow shards from their butterfly-ears. Penny started yapping and joined in, shooting yellow shards and dust from her ears as well.

As the yellow dust fell over the carnivorous plants from the patient's chest, the plants instantly became bright green again and started chomping around and a much faster rate, biting at the patient's heart and tearing at the surrounding skin.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zeff yelled. "Okay, looks like this is gonna be a long day. Miss Granger, I sincerely apologize, but if you really want to be healed from Bedazzlebuds, I suggest you try and convince my son yourself." He winked at her. "I think you can handle it, though. Galvin is easily swayed by pretty young ladies like yourself."

"DAAAD!" Lexa screamed, yanking at her orange hair again.

Her high-pitched scream caused Piper to snarl and shoot some yellow shards toward her. Lexa screamed again and ducked, her face instantly returning to her typical horrorstruck expression. Then she grabbed Hermione's hand and yanked her out of the room. "Penny, let's go!" She cried. "The last thing I need is some flesh-eating plants growing from my organs and preventing me from being a perfect Healer!"

Hermione, Lexa, and Penny exited the Barkson Hospital and started walking down the street. It was already dark, so they decided to head to Blaise Zabini's apartment where the purebloods in the area were already partying.

Hermione was thankful for Lexa's constant, worrisome bickering. The orange-haired girl's fear and intense anxiety kept Hermione fearful and anxious enough so that it was easier to block out any incoming thoughts about Draco. Luckily, Lexa's voice was hard to block out.

"I'm soooo sorry about my dad!" Lexa was shaking her head, shocked. The girl was rambling rapidly. "My dad's wonderful and very loyal, but he's not afraid to speak his mind. I hope you don't feel creeped out when he commented on your looks. Oh!" Lexa jumped. "Not that I don't think you're pretty! I think you're gorgeous! It was just creepy that my dad had to say that to you." Lexa's face twisted and she stomped her foot. "Ugh, but I don't mean it that way when I said you're pretty. I promise, I'm not attracted to you or anything like that, I just think you're pretty, but I don't have a crush on you or anything! Please don't get any wrong ideas, Hermione!" Lexa turned and grabbed Hermione's shoulders and looked into her eyes with desperation. "I swear, I am straight! Please don't try to damage my reputation as a Healer! PLEASE!"

Hermione blinked a couple times. She chuckled softly, still half-dazed from the images of Draco she had been trying to shove out of her mind. "It's okay…I would never try to damage your reputation. And I don't think you should feel like it would be damaged if you weren't straight."

Lexa shook Hermione violently. "ARGH! IT WILL! I HEAL PUREBLOODS, THE MOST PREJUDICED WIZARDS IN THIS WORLD! If they find a reason not to like me, they won't come to me for healing, and then I'll be screwed! Without patients to heal, I'd be nothing!" She spun around and shouted to the sky. "WHY?! Why am I here? Why was I brought out of my world and into this world of sorcerers?! I wish I could just return back to my world, back in my Yapillon Clan territory with my people, where I belong!"

Hermione would have tried to calm the emotionally unstable girl, but her head was throbbing and her heart was thudding. It was getting more and more difficult to rid Draco from her mind. She had to see him. She just had to.

Suddenly, Penny started yapping, which made Hermione come back to her senses. She turned to see Penny barking at a girl running out of an apartment building. Hermione gasped. The girl was Pansy Parkinson. And she was running out of the building, screaming, in her bra and panties. Silver flowers were growing from beneath those panties.

"Oh great…" Hermione muttered. An intense feeling of jealousy surged through her and she felt like chasing after the girl and….murdering her. "I have some competition now…" Her hands clenched.

Lexa gasped. "Ahh! Did Draco strike someone else?! NOOO! Wait. Hermione, COME BACK!"

Hermione found herself running after Pansy, her vision blurry with rage. _Why am I doing this? Why am I feeling this way? I shouldn't feel this way…oh, but Draco is MINE. He's MINE, not Pansy's. Not yours, you stupid, Slytherin bitch._

From the corner of her eye, Hermione could see someone running by her side. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw who it was. It was Harry. He had the same look of rage in his eyes. And he had silver flowers growing from his scar.


	4. Sexy Scandalous Slytherin Strikes Snakes

"Harry! What in the name of Merlin?!" Hermione skidded to a halt.

Harry stopped in his tracks as soon as he and Hermione had locked eyes. "Hermione?!" His eyes shifted to the five silver flowers on her forehead. "Great, the bloody ferret struck you too, didn't he?"

Hermione huffed. She clenched her fists and tried to ignore the image of a bloody, nude Draco that flashed in her mind at the sound the words "bloody ferret."

"Don't mention anything about him," snapped Hermione, looking at the ground and pressing her palms against her temples. "It's a major struggle to keep him off my mind."

Harry rubbed the side of his scar, where three silver flowers were growing. "Ugh, tell me about it. I feel so helpless and…dirty. As soon as Pansy stripped off her clothes in front of Draco, I found myself tackling her and beating her up…next thing I know, I'm chasing her in her undergarments down this sidewalk."

Hermione shook her head with a look of desperation in her eyes. "This is horrible."

"I know, I can't have my brain working this way. Especially since Ginny and I just got back from our honeymoon!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I can't have _my_ brain is working this way, especially since Ron and I just got engaged. How am I supposed to be a good fiancé now?"

Harry was rubbing his temples. "How am I supposed to be a good husband if I got that…that…deliciously scandalous Slytherin prince on my mind…."

Hermione flinched. She smacked Harry's cheek. "Harry! How dare you….that delicious Slytherin prince is…MINE."

Her urge to scold Harry instantly transformed into the urge to tackle him, to fight him to the death for that silver-eyed pureblood.

Harry instantly shoved Hermione against the wall, making her dizzy from the impact. "Malfoy is MINE, you mudblood. MINE."

Hermione's hands were suddenly wrapped around Harry's throat. The young man started gagging and loosening his grip on Hermione. "Don't you DARE call me a mudblood. Only my sexy, silver-eyed Slytherin smut-partner can call me that."

"That's right, Potter! How dare you copy me!" A drawling voice immediately made Hermione release Harry's neck and spin around to face Draco, who was walking up to her with…that seductive smirk on his face. Behind him were Blaise and Galvin.

"M-Malfoy…" Hermione was about spat a mouthful of insults, but she cut herself off as soon as she realized that there was a purple cobra wrapped around the top of Draco's shoulders. The tail-tip of the cobra was formed like a three-pronged trident, as well as the tongue of the cobra that continued to slip in and out of its mouth. "Wh-why do you have a Cobrazor? Draco, that's dangerous, that thing can give you Black Bile!"

"Aw, concerned about my health, Granger?" Draco raised his eyebrows. He stroked his hand across the Cobrazor's purple, scaly body. "This here is Forktongue. He's my new pet, and he's gonna protect me from all the other Cobrazors roaming out there."

Harry, who was lying on his side at Hermione's feet, gasping for air, looked up and straightened his glasses. "What do you mean? I'm supposed to be your guardian! I can protect you from all those monsters and sexual predators out there!" Harry then shook his head rapidly, cursing at himself for spitting out those words.

Draco, Blaise, and Galvin all started laughing. Even Forktongue seemed to be humored, for the snake raised his head and stuck out his tongue. The two flaps around its neck spread out and rattled, revealing a silver flower at the center of each flap.

"Oh my goodness!" Hermione jumped back, feeling her head throb with both shock and rage again. "Y-you struck the snake with Bedazzlebuds?!"

Galvin stepped forward, a wily grin on his face. "Don't get too jealous, Hermie. When Bedazzlebuds are transformed from human to animal, or vice versa, the target that was struck with the Bedazzlebuds will feel a strong, nonsexual bond with the original bearer of the Bedazzlebuds. So in other words, Forktongue will only feel attached, protective, and inseparable from Draco, without any sexual feelings involved."

Blaise crossed his arms, looking proud. "And that snake will literally do anything Draco tells it. Which is why I can stand here without getting attacked, even though I'm a pureblood."

Harry was breathing heavily. "Well, I'm glad to hear that Draco and his snake won't be fucking each other. But that doesn't change the fact that some creature other than myself is on your shoulders..."

"You're pathetic, Potterhead, feeling jealous of a snake," Draco winked at him. "I'd love to see you try and fight my Cobrazor and get ripped to pieces."

Blaise chimed in. "Hah! I bet the mudblood would destroy him first!"

"Damn right I would," Hermione lunged at Harry, but ended up grabbing his butt as Harry jumped up to lash at Forktongue.

Instantly, Forktongue opened his mouth wide, revealing a mouthful of fangs. His razor-sharp tongue punctured Harry, causing the young man to go limp and unconscious.

"Aw, damn," Galvin rolled his eyes. "Looks like Potterhead is gonna be spending time at our hospital."

Blaise looked at the orange-haired man. "I thought Cobrazors will only infect Black Bile into purebloods like Draco and myself? Do they affect half-bloods to some extent?"

"Half-bloods will get Black Bile, but they won't get full-blown Black Bile Syndrome," explained Galvin with a yawn.

Blaise blinked at him. "Okay, so what does that mean?"

Draco rolled his eyes and turned to his friend. "It means half-bloods like Potterhead will have their blood turn black and thick as tar, but it won't rapidly start spilling from his nose, ears, mouth, and ass."

"Aww," Blaise whined. "I wanted to see some black gunk leaking from Potter's ass."

Hermione was breathing hard, trying to force herself not to say what she was about to say. Unfortunately, the Bedazzlebuds in her flowers and blood made her impulses get the best of her. "Well, there won't be any room for black stuff to come out of his ass, because there's be way too much blood leaking from there after I get through with him."

She was just about to tackle him, but a twister of white dust and pollen swirled around Harry's body and lifted him up in the air. Hermione and the guys looked up to see Penny hovering in the air. The white dust was spiraling out of her mouth and butterfly-winged ears. The Yapillon fluttered away, with Harry's unconscious body hovering after her in the spiraling white dust.

Hermione saw Lexa in the distance, behind Draco, Galvin, and Blaise. Merlin, she had forgotten all about the girl.

"Sorry, Hermione!" Lexa called. "I'll restore Harry back to health and then meet up with you again tomorrow to get Pokey!"

Galvin looked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. He winked at his sister. "I'd like to see you try and convince Pokey to listen to a psycho like you."

"SHUT UP, GALVIN!" Screamed Lexa. Though she was quite a distance down the sidewalk, her loud, high-pitched voice still made Hermione, Blaise, and Draco flinch. "YOU'RE THE PSYCHO! YOU DESERVE TO BE FIRED AND GET BLACK BILE AND LEFT TO ROT IN COBRAZOR SHIT!" She pointed toward Galvin, looked up at Penny, and started babbling something in a foreign language that Hermione couldn't comprehend. But it was a language that Hermione had seen the Barksons use when speaking to their Yapillons, so Penny got the message. Penny turned and yapped in Galvin's direction, releasing a shot of something green and shiny her mouth and ears.

Galvin yelled and pushed Hermione out of the way. "AHHH, run, you guys! Explodew!"

But the green, shiny substance—Explodew—landed on the ground where Galvin had been standing, and instantly, the substance exploded. Green goo splattered everywhere, sending Hermione, Draco, Galvin, and Blaise flying in different directions, far across the street. Except Hermione and Draco (with Forktongue still wrapped around Draco's shoulders) had flown together, crashing into a dumpster and a crowd of trash cans.

A loud hiss sounded, and Hermione saw that Forktongue was spatting some black goo out of his mouth, hissing and spitting with anger.

"Shh, shh, calm down, Forktongue," Draco tried to soothe his snake.

Hermione glared at both of them. "You filthy, disgusting pair of…." Her vision was suddenly warped. Instead of seeing Draco and his snake covered with filth from crashing into the trash cans, she saw them both sitting beside a beach, covered in seaweed and sand. Draco was in swimming trunks. "…filthy, disgusting pair of naughty….sexilicious…."

Hermione was crawling toward Draco, who was watching her with a mix of humor and apprehension in his eyes. But before he could say anything, Forktongue's tongue extended out of his mouth and immediately punctured Hermione between her eyebrows. Instantly, Hermione fell into a deep sleep.

Her dream that night was more vivid that ever.

She was on the meadow again, rolling across the grass, the never-ending grass, kissing Draco. They fell off a cliff and splashed into the ocean below. Hermione and Draco were holding hands in midwater, gazing into each other's eyes. But this time they weren't alone. Forktongue was swirling around Draco's body, tearing at his clothes with his three-pronged tongue and tail. Then Forktongue did the same to Hermione, slithering—or rather, swimming—around her body, tearing her clothes. Soon, Draco and Hermione were naked. The waters washed them ashore on the beach, and Hermione got up to see Draco's bare, shiny-wet body rise up with Forktongue wrapped atop his shoulders.

Merlin, both Draco and his snake were so sexy together. She pounced on Draco, falling on top of him, ready to make love. But before she do anything, she felt a vibration. Both Draco and the snake were vibrating beneath her. What was going on?

She woke up. She was still lying in near the trashcans, although there was no sign of Draco and his snake. "Ohh…" she moaned. "How dare he…that bastard…leaving me here alone…all alone…without his delicious body to keep me safe…" she felt the vibration again. Her phone in her jeans pocket. She groaned and slowly slipped it out. Her screen showed a missed call and a text message, both from Ron. Her heart skipped a beat as she read his text.

 _Hey babe, I'll be a bit late to our dinner at Brews and Stews tonight, srry. But I'll be there in 10 mins!_


	5. Attacked Seduced Then Attacked Again

_Shoot,_ Hermione's head was spinning as she read the text. _Shoot, shoot, shoot. I totally forgot about our dinner tonight. We were planning to discuss wedding plans afterward too…_

She had to call it off. She had to explain to Ron that she could not be anywhere near him, because these flowers were going to make her think and do crazy things that she would not want to think and do when she was around her fiancé. Her mind was already filling up with thoughts about sitting at Brews and Stews with Draco, discussing wedding plans with him instead…

"Stop!" Hermione screamed at herself. "Ugh! I hate this! Why is this happening?!" She instantly called Ron on her phone. When he picked up, she spoke as quickly as she could before her impulses drove her to say anything horrible and unintentional. "Ron! Hey, I'm so sorry…this is super urgent. But something terrible's happened. Malfoy—ahh!"

She felt something whack against her back, and was instantly knocked to the ground. Her phone fell a few feet in front of her.

"Hermione?! Hullo?!" Ron's voice was faint from the phone.

Hermione looked behind her and saw a dark-hooded figure in black robes, standing there with a Cobrazor wrapped around his shoulders. The Cobrazor had whacked her with its tail (thankfully, not with the three-pronged tips).

"Wha—who are you?" Hermione gasped. She couldn't see the face beneath the shadows of the dark hood.

The figure didn't speak, but the Cobrazor on his shoulders raised its head and let out a loud hiss, causing its neck flaps to rattle. There were no silver flowers on those flaps, so it wasn't Forktongue, and the hooded figure was most likely not Draco.

Hermione noticed the figure was holding something in one hand. A glistening, sapphire wand. Hermione's eyes widened. It was the Organink Wand.

"Wh-what are you doing with my Organink Wand?!" Hermione cried. She whipped out her wand and pointed to the figure. "Expelli—"

The hooded figure whispered something that Hermione couldn't understand, and instantly, the Cobrazor's tongue extended and jabbed her between her eyebrows, interrupting Hermione's disarming spell.

Hermione let out a scream. Blood started trickling down the bridge of her nose. But before the Cobrazor was able to do anything else, another purple three-pronged tail whacked at the hooded figure, causing him to fall on his side. Hermione looked to her left and saw another lean, shadowy figure with a Cobrazor on his shoulders. This Cobrazor's neck flaps were rattling with a silver flower on each.

Draco. And Forktongue.

Hermione suddenly felt nauseous. Pain, horror, anger, and captivation surged through her all at the same time.

"Get 'em, Forktongue!" Draco shouted, stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight, closer to where Hermione and the dark hooded figure were lying.

Forktongue was about to whack at the hooded figure with his tail, but the Cobrazor blocked it with its own tail.

Hermione heard whispers come from the hooded figure. The figure raised an arm, holding a wand. Then instantly, the figure and his Cobrazor disappeared. They had disapparated.

Hermione remained in her position, lying on her stomach while gazing over her shoulder, wide-eyed with shock. She flinched at the sound of Draco's voice.

"Getting yourself into trouble, Granger?" He was standing beside her, looking down at her with a concerned frown on his face.

Hermione stared into his silver eyes. She was transfixed. She wanted to badly to tell him that she had been attacked out of nowhere, as well as thank him for saving her, but he was too beautiful. Especially when she looked up at him with his head in front of the moonlight. She could not get herself to speak. "Mmm…" was all she could say.

Draco raised his eyebrows and a smile cracked his lips. "Wow. Are you that crazy about me that you can't even tell me what just happened to you?"

Hermione shook herself. "I….ugh…I…." she was shivering, restraining herself from jumping at Draco and kissing the daylights out of him.

Draco heaved a sigh and looked at the spot where the hooded figure had been standing. There was a black-and-silver substance in its place. Forktongue's tongue extended a few feet forward and hovered above it, sensing it.

Draco raised his eyebrows, listening to the Cobrazor's series of hisses and spats. "Hmm. Well, according to Forktongue, that stuff is Organink."

At the sound of that, Hermione jumped up. She regained her senses. "Organink?! Oh my gosh…I also saw him holding the Organink Wand as well."

Draco blinked. "Wow. I bet that thief is planning to write his own stories with Organink and bring them into this world, using the Organink Wand."

"I bet he was the same person who broke into my lab and used the Organink and the Organink Wand to release the Cobrazors. Except now that he actually stole both the potion and the wand now, who knows what kinds of creatures he could release into this world?"

"You should tell M.B. and the people in your lab," remarked Draco. "I'll be sure to report this to the Ministry of Magic, as well as all the other Aurors in the Auror department with me. At least we know this thief is a wizard."

Hermione turned to Draco. Suddenly, her head was throbbing and her heart was aching for him again. She found herself grabbing his hand and pulling him close to her so that they were face to face, nose to nose. "Don't leave me," she murmured in a rather seductive tone. She started stroking his hair. "We must work together to stop this thief. Together, we would be….unstoppable."

Draco's eyes were wide as he looked into hers. Before he could say anything, Hermione instantly gasped and pushed him away from her. She grabbed her head and screamed.

"Argh! What's wrong with me?! I hate you, I hate you, Malfoy! Do NOT get any wrong ideas! Anything I just said, it's all in the power of these damn flowers! AAAAGH!"

Forktongue hissed, and Draco gave a soft chuckle. "Geez, Granger. Someone's got a case of Borderline Personality Disorder."

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Hermione shouted, forcing herself to keep her angry eyes directed toward the ground, so that she wouldn't be transfixed by Draco's silver eyes again. "You let Galvin's stupid Yapillon give you these seductive powers, and then you listened to him when he told you to use them on me! YOU'RE AWFUL!"

Draco stepped up to her and grabbed her chin with two fingers. He softly tilted her head up so that she was facing him, though her eyes were still directed away. "You know, Granger, there's a reason why I agreed to strike you."

Hermione was shaking with rage and fear at the same time. She was struggling to keep her gaze directed to the side, even though her face was directed toward Draco's.

Draco continued to speak in a steady voice. "I struck you for a reason. It's not just because Galvin told me to. You know I don't like to follow orders, especially from someone who's not even a wizard."

Hermione spoke through clenched teeth and with a shaking voice. "A-are you trying to tell me that y-you struck me because y-you're in love with me?"

A few seconds of silenced passed before Draco responded. "I've been in love with you since 4th year, actually," his voice was quiet. "I was so furious with myself about it, too. I hated myself for having these…uncontrollable feelings of attraction for someone I've despised and insulted for so long. The feelings just seemed to come out of nowhere, specifically after seeing you at the Yule Ball."

Hermione's head was throbbing. She felt tears in her eyes. It was getting harder and harder to keep her eyes away from his.

Draco sighed. "I continued to be the horrible git that I was toward you, just to hide how I was really feeling about you, Granger. I thought eventually those feelings would go away over time. But they never did." His voice became quieter. "So ever since that ball, I've been trying _so much_ to suppress those feelings for you…so I totally get what you're going through right now, Granger. I know what it's like to have feelings for someone you really don't want to be falling for. And I've felt the agony that develops when one tries to suppress such feelings. I know you're hurting terribly."

Hermione's eyes slowly shifted to meet his. Brown eyes met silver eyes.

"I apologize for choosing right now to tell you," said Draco. "But now that you feel the same way about me, the way I had been feeling about you since 4th year, I believe this is the best time the both of us can just…just…"

"Release the tension and stop suppressing our feelings for each other?" Hermione finished for him.

Draco nodded. He never took his eyes off her.

Forktongue let out a hiss.

Hermione blinked, still locking her eyes with Draco's. "Oh….Draco….that thief and his Cobrazor…we must report him as soon as possible. It can't wait…he can bring so much danger to the world."

"You're right…" Draco gently brushed a strand of her hair away from the bleeding wound between her eyebrows, where the thief's Cobrazor had stabbed her. "But…I honestly don't think either of us could function productively if we continue avoiding each other like this."

Hermione bit her lip. "Should we…should we do a quickie?"

Draco smiled. "I don't think a quickie is possible. If we start, we won't be able to stop."

Hermione huffed. "Okay. Let's…let's go all out then. We can take up the rest of tonight. Then tomorrow, we'll report everything we saw about this hooded figure, first thing tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good to me," Draco replied. "Apparate to my apartment?"

Hermione found herself smiling. "Absolutely."

The next thing she knew, she was at the door to Draco's apartment. She watched excited as he took out his keys and unlocked his door.

The door opened, and a figure was standing before them.

It was Voldemort. He looked the same way he did before Harry had defeated him.

Before Draco or Hermione could make a sound, Voldemort raised a wand and aimed it at both of them. "Avada Kedavra!"


	6. Snake Snot

Hermione found herself skipping merrily across a grassy meadow. She was arm-in-arm with Draco, and above them were Penny and Pokey, fluttering above their heads. Suddenly, the pups started yapping and releasing a pink, powdery mist around them, eliciting the mixed scent of vanilla and cherries. As soon as Hermione inhaled the scent, the entire scene around her disappeared, and she was blinking her eyes open in a white-walled room where Lexa and Penny were standing by her side. She still smelled the vanilla-cherry scent from the pink powder coming from Penny's butterfly ears.

"Okay, that's enough Penny," said Lexa, putting a hand on the Yapillon's silky back. The mist stopped eliciting from her ears.

Hermione sat up. "Oh my goodness! How did I get here?!" She looked around the room in the Barkson Hospital.

Lexa looked at Hermione, her eyes wide. "Oh shoot, don't make me retell that horrid moment last night! Hermione, you and Draco were dragged here in a bubble of Venomucus."

Hermione's face twisted in disgust. "Venomucus…?"

Lexa gave a quick nod. "Forktongue released it over you guys and since the stuff is sticky AF, he was able to drag you both over here at the same time, just by having the bubble settle on the unsharpened sides of his three-pronged tail. You guys were unconscious when he arrived here with your bodies! And both of you were covered in so many bruises, with some crazy electrolyte imbalances in your blood! What the heck happened?!"

Hermione blinked a couple times and shook her head. "It's all coming back now. Draco and I were just about to step into his apartment…but Voldemort awaited us there."

"Aha!" Lexa jumped. "That's what Forktongue was explaining to me and Penny when he brought you guys here."

Hermione raised her eyebrows at Lexa. "Forktongue told you we were nearly killed by the most feared wizard in the world, whom we thought Harry had killed nearly two years ago?"

Lexa spun around, pressing her hands on her temples. "Arrrgh! YES! He said that he managed to save both you and Draco by releasing some Venomucus to on you guys to lessen the effect of the weird spell that was about to be cast on you. You guys were still struck by that spell, which is why you needed to be taken here to our hospital, but with Venomucus plastered all over your bodies, the effect of the spell was reduced."

Hermione nodded carefully. _So Venomucus can weaken the effect of Avada Kedavra? Interesting…no wonder we're still alive._

Lexa continued to ramble on. "Forktongue communicated the whole story to me—in his own language of hisses that only people in M.B.'s story could understand. But he was also telling me a bunch of weird shit that I wasn't even sure was all true. I'm glad to hear from you now, so I can confirm that it wasn't all bullcrap."

Hermione felt her cheeks turn red. "So I guess he also told you that I was attacked by a dark-hooded figure who had the Organink Wand with him."

"Yes! And Draco actually saved you? And he confessed that he LOVED you?!" Lexa's face was twisted with both shock and disgust. "You know, some redheaded dude named Ron came to visit you earlier this morning while you were still unconscious. He said you were his fiancé? And that you never showed up to the dinner you two had been planning to have?"

Hermione gasped at the sound of Ron's name. But since Lexa had also mentioned Draco, Hermione couldn't help but smile dreamily. "Y-yes….I'm engaged to Ronald Weasley as of last week. But…but…" she was fighting her impulses again, but lost again. "…but…I think I've found someone better. And we were so close to having…."

"Oh, goodness, you're sick!" Lexa smacked her shoulder. Luckily, Hermione was fully healed from her wounds, so it didn't hurt too much.

Hermione turned to the orange-haired girl, returning her shocked and disgusted expression. "Oh, Lexa, I'm so sorry, but I couldn't hold back my urges to reciprocate Draco's confessed love. The Bedazzlebuds were too strong in my blood, thanks to the flowers on my forehead."

Lexa snorted. "Sickening. But anyway, who the hell is this Voldemort? Why did he try to kill you guys?"

Hermione stared at Lexa, suddenly remembering that, although Lexa looked as real as any human being on this planet, she was only a character from a science-fiction novel, brought into this world by the Organink Wand. She had no background knowledge about their wizarding world.

"Oh, Merlin," mumbled Hermione. "The first thing you should know about Voldemort is that he's supposed to be dead. I think…I think that dark-hooded figure who attacked me has something to do with his return. He must have written about Voldemort with Organink, and then used the Organink Wand to summon him out of his writing to bring him into this world."

Lexa nodded, frowning studiously. "Uh-huh. That would make sense. He must have written all about Voldemort's life story, personality, and background, just as M.B. did with my family and our Yapillons and the Cobrazors. What's Voldemort's backstory? Tell me all about him!"

Hermione heaved a sigh. "There's _so_ much to say about Voldemort. It's a long story…if I tried to explain it to you, you would freak out."

Lexa already looked freaked out. She yanked on her hair. "Well, uncertainty freaks me out more than anything else in the world!" She grabbed Hermione's shoulders and dug her nails into her skin, making Hermione wince. "HERMIONE, YOU'VE GOT TO TELL ME RIGHT NOW!"

"Please stop screaming in my face!" Hermione pushed the young Healer away.

Lexa stumbled back but continued to yell in her high-pitched voice. "YOU MUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED AND EXPLAIN TO ME WHO VOLDEMORT IS! If I become too stressed from all the stress of uncertainty, my immune system will go down, and then I'll be the one who's sick! I CAN'T BE SICK! I'M SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF THE SICK, DAMMIT!" She kicked a trash can beside her. Penny yapped and began to flap her butterfly ears to hover in midair.

Hermione pressed her back against the bedrest of the hospital bed. While Lexa continued to scream out her worries about losing her skills and reputation as a Healer, Hermione was gazing at a dark-hooded figure standing at the window behind Lexa and Penny. The figure was facing her, holding the Organink Wand in his hand.


	7. Draco and Hermione's Ketogenic Diet

The door opened, and Hermione shifted her gaze to see Galvin walk into the room, smiling smugly. "Damn, calm your tits, woman," he said to Lexa. "Poor Draco could hear you screaming down the hall, where he was trying to rest."

Hermione shifted her gaze back to the window. The dark hooded figure was gone. "Hey, the thief was just right there—"

"Ah, no worries, Galvin," Draco walked into the room, dressed in white hospital gown. Hermione shifted her gaze toward Draco, immediately forgetting about the dark hooded figure at the window. Her heart raced as she heard Draco speak. "Pokey did a great job restoring me back to health." He met Hermione's eyes and gave her a wink, which sent excited shivers down her spine and a tingling sensation in her stomach. "But no worries, Granger. Pokey did not eliminate the Bedazzlebuds in my blood—yet. Galvin and I came here to discuss that with you, Granger, because we were actually considering it."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Really, Draco? You take me to your apartment to have sex with me after confessing that you always loved me, only to surprise me with Voldemort, who, by the way, nearly killed us both! And now you're wanting to remove the source in my blood that's causing me to reciprocate your love? What's going on here?"

Draco walked up to Hermione, holding his hands of in defense. "Hey, first of all, I had no idea that Voldemort was in my apartment. I was just as shocked as you were. Second, Galvin just told me about a huge health issue we have since we were struck by a weakened Avada Kedavra curse, and the cure for such a health issue will also cure us from Bedazzlebuds."

"A health issue," Hermione repeated testily, trying to hold back her urge to jump out of bed and onto his body, to finish what they had meant to start the other night.

Draco nodded. "We were about to be struck by Avada Kedavra, but because Forktongue purposely sneezed Venomucus on us, the curse became modified when it struck us. We ended up being struck with a very weakened version of Avada Kedavra."

Galvin chuckled smoothly. "And based on the lab tests we performed on you guys, the two of you are going to have _very_ intense seizures as a result of the weakened Abra Kadabra curse."

"Avada Kedavra," corrected Hermione, glaring at Galvin.

"Whatevs," shrugged the spiky-haired young man. "The main point here is that each time you guys have those intense seizures, your life expectancy will decrease by 10 years. And based on the neurochemistry in your brains, you're going to have these seizures pretty frequently."

Draco nodded, keeping his gaze on Hermione. "So that's how a weakened version of Avada Kedavra will kill us," said Draco solemnly. "It will give us these seizures that will make our lifespan shorter and shorter each time we have them, until our lifespan is so short that we eventually just die after a good number of seizures."

Hermione reached out a hand and gently grabbed his arm. "It's okay…we can die together, love."

Galvin cracked up.

Lexa made a retching noise. "Hermione!"

Hermione instantly yanked her hand back, furious with herself. "Dammit, I did it again!"

Lexa hurried up to her. "It's alright. Draco was correct—there _is_ a treatment plan that can actually cure you from _both_ the weakened Avada Kedavra curse and Bedazzlebuds at the same time!"

Galvin sighed and rolled his eyes, looking annoyed. "Yeah, apparently, the only way to save yourselves from getting these life-shortening seizures is to start a ketogenic diet for one month. After one year on the ketogenic diet, you will be completely free of the weakened curse. But being on the ketogenic diet will also free you guys from Bedazzlebuds."

Hermione nodded slowly, remembering what M.B. had told her about the ketogenic diet when she was working with the Healer in her lab. "The ketogenic diet," said Hermione. "That diet only consists of fat and protein. No carbs."

Lexa nodded. "Without carbs, your body will be only breaking down fat. And when your body breaks down fat, it releases a bunch of ketone bodies in the bloodstream. It is theorized that those ketone bodies will to correct the neurological imbalances in the brain, preventing the seizures."

Galvin sighed. "Yeah, but as a side effect: those ketone bodies will also correct the neurological imbalances caused by Bedazzlebuds. Having lots of ketone bodies will also get rid of Bedazzlebuds altogether."

Draco winced. "What?! There's no way I'm going on some no-carb diet! Especially if it's going to keep me from seducing delicious women like Granger."

Hermione looked at the silver-eyed blonde. "Draco…it's the only way we can keep ourselves alive, otherwise we will slowly get seizures that will slowly kill us." She found herself involuntary reaching out for his wrist and pulling him closer. She never took his eyes off his beautiful face. "Besides…I think I would like to have ourselves learn to love each other without having to rely on some external source of Bedazzlebuds to force the love to be there. I want to teach myself to love you _naturally_. And if you truly love me the way you said you did last night, you would want our love to be genuine and natural as well, not due to some silly neurochemistry alteration from something like Bedazzlebuds."

Draco looked into her eyes, his expression hollow and unreadable. "I'm not sure, Granger…" his voice was very quiet. "A-are you sure you would be willing to keep our relationship alive when your brain is no longer on a romantic high?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Yes, I will. Once the Bedazzlebuds fade away and these flowers are no longer on my head, I will make sure to look at you with a new light."

Draco raised an eyebrow and gave her a half-playful, half-concerned smile. "How can I be sure you'll feel the same way? How can _you_ be sure you'll feel the same way?"

Hermione smiled naughtily. She was definitely under the influence of her silver flowers now. But she let it take over her. This was all part of her plan. She turned to Galvin, ignoring Lexa's shocked, horrified, and open-mouthed expression.

"Hey Galvin," she called.

"Sup?" Galvin tilted his chin in her direction.

"Tell the Yapillons in your entire family to come with Draco and I back to his apartment," said Hermione. She turned back to Draco, who was looking at her with curiosity and eagerness. "I'm going to give us a night that neither of us are going to forget."

That evening, Hermione found herself bare naked, pressing a bare naked Draco against his bed. Draco gazed up at her with a sexy grimace on his face.

"Hermione, you naughty witch," he purred. "I didn't know you were _that_ great in bed. You're even better than Astoria Greengrass."

Hermione returned his sexy grimace. "Hah. Well, we haven't even had half the fun yet." She looked over her shoulder and whistled. "Piper, Plutarco, Pokey, and Penny! Ya'll can come in now!"

The four Yapillons of the Barkson family fluttered into the room, wagging their tails as they hovered in midair. Hot-pink mist was coming out of their earholes and nostrils.

"Ooh," Draco raised his eyebrows. "Is that pink stuff their Amorabloom Pollen?"

Hermione nodded, grinning mischievously. "Damn right it is. That stuff enhances the euphoric high and sexual arousal we will feel. Having sex in a room reeking of Amorabloom Pollen will mean we will feel 100 times aroused and euphoric during the intercourse."

"Ah, I couldn't imagine feeling any more aroused and excited after that!" Draco laughed. "Bring it on!"

And pretty soon, they were continuing their activity in a room full of hot-pink mist.

So after that night, Hermione and Draco both started the ketogenic diet. For one month, they both consumed only foods that consisted of protein and fat. Each day, Hermione's flowers grew smaller, and Draco's eyes grew less silvery.

After one month, Hermione saw that her flowers were completely gone. She and Draco visited the Barkson hospital for a checkup in Milette Barkson's office, and Milette Barkson confirmed that the Bedazzlebuds were completely gone.

Hermione sighed. She turned to Draco. His eyes were back to their normal grey-blue, no longer shining silver.

Draco sighed as well. He was the first to speak. "So what do you feel Granger? Are you still attracted to me at all?"

"Honestly, I felt the attraction faltering this past month…" Hermione confessed. She turned to glance at Milette Barkson, who was watching them with her robotic, emotionless expression. She turned back to Draco.

Draco bit his lip. "So you don't genuinely love me in that way. There's no natural chemistry there, huh?"

Hermione's heart sank at his pessimistic tone. "Oh, Draco, I'm so sorry."

Draco turned his back on her. "Don't bother apologizing, Granger. I would never want to genuinely love a mudblood anyway." He slammed the door behind him.

Hermione felt her eyes water. Milette walked up to her and spoke in her emotionless tone. "If it helps, Miss Granger, our Yapillons will be driven to get you two back together."

Hermione looked up at the tall lady. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Milette adjusted her cat-eye glasses. "Once Yapillons release enough Amorabloom Pollen, it will have an effect on them as well. They will also feel extremely euphoric and aroused. That means they will feel the urge to instill the same context in which they felt that euphoria."

Hermione gasped. "You mean…your Yapillons are going to try and get me and Draco to have intense sex with each other in his room, with their Amorabloom Pollen steaming up the room. Because that also made them feel extremely euphoric, and they're going to want to feel it again and again."

Milette nodded. "It's like an addiction. Plutarco was telling me about it. He could not stop thinking about how wonderful he felt when he saw you two making love with all that Amorabloom filling up the room. He really wants to have that happen again, and the desire is so powerful, he is going to stop at nothing to force that situation to happen again."

Hermione's eyes went wild. "No…no, it can't be! I will not have sex with that bloody ferret again! I will never let myself fall in love with Draco Malfoy, even if my life depended on it!"


	8. Pink Twisters Smell Wonderful

Hermione rushed out of Milette's office, frowning as angry thoughts raced through her head. _Draco Malfoy is a spiteful, self-centered, prejudiced git. I'll never love him, and I'll never let anyone or anything force me to feel that way. I can't believe I even tried to force myself to fall in love when the flowers on my forehead were dying!_

She was so lost in her thoughts that she wasn't looking where she was going as she fast-walked down the hospital halls. She bumped into a tall figure, who stumbled back with a hiss.

Hermione gasped and realized she had just bumped into the dark-hooded figure holding the Organink Wand right hand. The hissing came from the Cobrazor on his shoulders.

"You…" Hermione narrowed her eyes, trying to see the face under the hood. She whipped out her wand, pointed at the figure, but the figure instantly whipped out his wand in his left hand and whispered an incomprehensible spell. Hermione instantly flew backwards, crashing into another body and landing on the hard-tiled floors.

"Ow! Dammit, Granger, get off me!" Draco pushed her off of him and stood up, brushing his shirt. Forktongue was at his heels, hissing and spitting at her.

Hermione snorted and shot up to her feet, turning around to face the dark-hooded figure. But he was gone.

"Argh!" Hermione threw her hands up in the air. "He disappeared again! Who is this wizard? I bet he's responsible for bringing Voldemort back into the world."

Draco huffed and shouldered past her. "Well, now that I know you're never going to reciprocate any love for me, I can stop wasting my time thinking about you and start focusing on my duties as an Auror. Instead of chasing after you, I'll be able to chase after that thief like I'm supposed to."

But before he could walk any more than a few feet away from Hermione, the two of them were suddenly trapped in a twister of hot-pink pollen. The four Barkson Yapillons—Piper, Plutarco, Pokey, and Penny—were running up to them, coming from all directions. They were releasing the hot-pink mist from their mouths, nostrils, and ears as they yapped.

Draco and Hermione collided again, and spun together in the hot-pink twister of Amorabloom Pollen.

As their bodies spun together in midair, in the center of the twister of hot-pink pollen and dust, Hermione was gazing into Draco's grey-blue eyes, feeling dizzier and dizzier. But she was able to ignore the dizziness, the longer she stared at Draco. And as she inhaled the sweet-smelling, vanilla-cherry aroma, she felt her loins tingle. Draco suddenly looked so beautiful, so alluring to her, and she found herself involuntarily wrapping her arms around his neck, resting his forearms on his shoulders.

Draco was also enticed by the aroma and the dizzy sensation. He caressed Hermione's cheek with the back of his hand, and then leaned forward to give her soft kisses down her neck. The four Yapillons bounced around, circling them both to keeping them spinning in midair in the center of the hot-pink twister. They were also feeling the intense euphoria again. They continued to yap and yap, for that was how they were releasing the Amorabloom Pollen from their ears, noses, and mouths.

Then a loud yelp came from Piper. The spinning stopped, and the hot-pink mist began to dissolve. Hermione fell to the floor, with Draco landing on top of her. Forktongue was hissing and spitting, stabbing at the four Yapillons with his long, extensive tongue and three-pronged tail, which had caused them to scatter and cease exhaling the Amorabloom Pollen.

Hermione and Draco instantly regained their normal senses. They were glaring at each other with disgust.

"Get offa me, Malfoy," she harshly shoved him off of her.

"Hmph," Draco stood up on his feet and stepped over her, not bothering to help her stand up. "Get 'em, Forktongue!" He watched as the Yapillons fluttered away, covered in blood and green gunk. Forktongue hissed after them, his neck flaps rattling rapidly. "Can't believe they just did that to us. I gotta talk to Galvin and have him make sure Pokey keeps himself and the other Yapillons from doing that again."

"Hah!" Hermione got up, frowning at Draco. "Go ahead and tell Galvin what you want. Milette just told me that she can't even get Plutarco to refrain from chasing us and releasing Amorabloom Pollen to induce romantic feelings between us. Those Yapillons got an intense euphoric feeling from releasing all that Amorabloom Pollen around us that one night we had sex, and they loved the feeling so much that they will stop at nothing to try and induce the same circumstances again."

Draco turned to Hermione, his eyes narrowed. "Really, now?"

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms. "Don't think you can use this as an opportunity to make me like you again, Draco."

"Oh no, I'm really not happy about this either, Granger. I really don't want to have you falling for me in such an unnatural way again, especially since it already didn't work out the first time, when we both had Bedazzlebuds running through our blood," he stood still to allow Forktongue to slither around his body until the snake was resting on his shoulders. Then he brushed passed Hermione, holding his head high. "I'm already ashamed with myself for even thinking about a serious relationship with a mudblood like you. I've got much more important things to work on in life, such as chasing after that dark-hooded thief. And Voldemort."

Hermione stuck her chin at him as he ventured farther away down the hall. "Good. Then make sure your stupid snake stays loyal enough to scare off those Yapillons."


	9. An Unromantic Evening

That evening, Hermione returned to her apartment, feeling mentally exhausted. She had spent the rest of her day in her genetics lab at the Wizarding University of Sorcery and Science, running experiments with M.B. to regenerate some more Organink and create a new Organink Wand, since all their Organink was also missing with the wand itself.

When she stepped into her apartment, she paused with surprise. The place was dimly lit and filled with candles. Rose petals trailed from the front of her feet to the kitchen in the distance, where Ron was walking toward her.

"Ron, did you do this?" Hermione gasped.

Ron chuckled. "No, I had Harry do it for me," he said in a joking, sarcastic tone.

Hermione chuckled, still looking around with amazement. "This looks amazing! I would have never expected you to be this romantic and creative."

"Hey, you may doubt my creativity, but never doubt my romantic endeavors," he said, wrapping his arm around her and giving her a kiss on the lips.

Hermione suddenly felt an unexpected rush of disgust as her lips met his. She involuntarily pulled away from him.

Ron looked at her, confused. "Is everything alright?"

Hermione blinked a couple times. _Did I just pull away from Ron?_ "Yes! Sorry, I'm just a little on edge today. Long day in lab." She took off her lab coat and hung it on a rack.

Ron snorted. "Come on, 'Mione, I know you well by now. Did someone offend you today? Perhaps a pratty Malfoy git?"

Hermione met his gaze with a frown. "Please don't mention his name. I don't want to be reminded of anything that happened between us within the last two months."

Ron followed her as she made her way into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. "Well, I thought that since this you can finally terminate your ketogenic diet, we can celebrate by eating out at a nice, fancy Italian restaurant. I've already made reservations at your favorite muggle place, Vazianno's. What do you say?"

Hermione filled up her glass with water from their pitcher. "Oh…um, yeah, sure. That sounds good."

Ron winced. "Okay…I was expecting some more excitement here, but I guess it's great that you aren't trying to avoid me anymore like you've been doing this past month."

Hermione sighed, setting her glass down and staring at the water. "Ron, I've already apologized about spending so much time with Malfoy in the past few weeks. We were both on our ketogenic diet, so that we could prevent our life-shortening seizures. And I already explained to you that the diet was also going to eliminate the Bedazzlebuds in our blood, rendering Malfoy unable to spread his Bedazzlebuds with others, and rendering myself unable to feel any romantic feelings for Malfoy. I only spent a lot of time going out with Malfoy while we were on the diet, because I wanted to see if my romantic feelings for him could stay naturally, or at least unfold naturally, but since I experienced clear declines in my feelings for him as the Bedazzlebuds slowly disappeared from my blood, I realized that I don't genuinely love him the way I had loved you."

Ron huffed. He mumbled something under his breath.

Hermione turned to face him. "Ron, I'm sorry this had to happen while we were engaged. But look on the bright side: at least now I know for sure that I don't have any genuine feelings for Malfoy. So now I can reaffirm our relationship and know for sure that you are the right one for me." She walked up to him, intending to wrap her arm around him and kiss him, but she stopped herself, suddenly feeling repulsed. She ended up standing in front of him with an arm extended in midair.

Ron looked at her, wincing again.

Hermione blinked, confused with herself as well. _Am I feeling disgusted? What's going on with me?_ She dropped her arm, blushing. "Um…sorry, I…uh…" she extended her arm again and forced herself to smile. "I was just waiting for you to take my hand so we can Apparate to Vazziano's together for our dinner."

Ron blinked. Then he smiled. "Okay, babe."

Again, Hermione felt a rush of fear and disgust at the sound of his words. She frowned at herself, feeling even more confused. _What's going on? Why am I feeling this way?_

For the rest of that night, Hermione experienced even more waves of disgust at any romantic gestures Ron tried to make toward her. When he tried to hold her hand as they walked to their table, she squeezed it tightly and then pulled her hand out of his grip, feeling both scared and grossed out. When they took a walk in the gardens outside the restaurant, she was aloof and distant, pulling away whenever he tried to touch her. And when he tried to bring up any topics about their wedding plans, she would change the subject and start talking about the science behind the Organink Wand's magic, a topic that was too complicated for Ron to understand.

By the time they were getting ready for bed, Hermione found herself fearing the idea of sleeping next to Ron. She felt like throwing up every time she pictured her body being so close to his. She made the excuse that she had to spend the night in her lab for an overnight experiment that could not be rescheduled for another time in the day.

Hermione Apparated to the Wizardry University of Sorcery and Science and found herself standing in front of the Department of Genomic Witchcraft building, the building where her genetics lab was. She stared at the building and gave a huff. She was angry with herself and felt awful about her behavior around Ron tonight. _Perhaps the ketogenic diet did something to me, or maybe these feelings are just side effects from the medications I've been taking._ In addition to the ketogenic diet last month, she and Draco had also been on some medications that the Barksons had prescribed to them in order to alleviate any other potential health problems that the weakened Avada Kedavra curse could have done to their bodies _._ Hermione took out her phone and called Lexa.

"Lexa? Hello?" She spoke quietly, even though there was no one to be seen on the campus around her.

"Hello?!" Lexa's frantic voice sounded from the phone. "Ah! Hermione! Hi! I'm just about to get ready for bed, so I really don't wanna talk too long. I'm _extremely_ OCD about getting exactly eight hours of sleep—no more, no less each night. So please make it quick!"

"Yes, I will, sorry to disturb you, I didn't want to visit the hospital again since I really wanted to stay away from those Yapillons."

"Ah yes, Penny's been on edge all day, fighting the urge to just fly outta the hospital, find you, and drag to you Draco so that she can breathe Amorabloom Pollen on your guys again," said Lexa. "It's freaking me out! I won't go into the details of what I did to her to try and make her focus. But anyway, what do you want to talk to me about?!"

"Well, I just wanted to inquire about the way I've been feeling today since I stopped my ketogenic diet, as well as the medications you prescribed to me."

"OH NO!" Lexa screamed, causing Hermione to jerk the phone from her ear. "Don't tell me you've gotten any of the side effects!"

Hermione sighed. "Well, I'm not sure, but that's what I wanted to discuss with you. I've been feeling rather… _aromantic_ around my fiancé, Ron. Even in the most romantic atmospheres, I've felt this intense rush of fear and disgust. Sure, I felt surprised an amazed that he lit candles in our apartment and had a trail of rose petals, but I felt no romantic passion whatsoever. And anytime he tried to touch me or say anything romantic, I would feel so grossed out. The thought of sleeping with him tonight, or having any sex, nearly made me puke." She closed her eyes with frustration. "I'm just so frustrated with myself for feeling this way, especially after I've officially gotten over Draco!"

"Hmm," said Lexa. "Well, none of the medications I gave you have any psychiatric side effects. Might I remind you—in M.B.'s book, all the treatments are free of side effects, so any medications synthesized from my Yapillons' resources should not be affecting you. If you experience any side effects, they must have been from that ketogenic diet."

Hermione gasped. "Oh shoot. The ketone bodies generated in that diet also eliminated Bedazzlebuds, so that I would feel no romantic feelings for Draco anymore. But…you don't suppose that was because eliminating Bedazzlebuds also meant eliminating my ability to feel any romantic feelings for anyone?!"

"That sounds right!" Said Lexa. "I remember Galvin telling me that having Pokey eliminate Bedazzlebuds himself wouldn't be very ideal if the Bedazzlebuds remained in your blood for a long time, because it would also eliminate any feelings of romance you can ever have. That's because when you have Bedazzlebuds running in your blood, your body becomes dependent on them. Estrogen, testosterone, any hormones responsible for the development of romantic and sexual feelings cease to work the same way as they did when the Bedazzlebuds are removed from your bloodstream."

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione yelled. "Why didn't you tell me about that?"

"I mean, I didn't really need to, did I? Loss of romantic feelings is a wonderful side effect, because now you won't be distracted by any stupid guys out there! I'm actually super relieved that you didn't call me to discuss any bad side effects!" She giggled. "Man, I should have Penny give me Bedazzlebuds and then eliminate them from my blood after my body has become dependent on them. I'd love to be aromantic and asexual like you, Hermione!"

Hermione was speechless. She remained silent, her heart pounding rapidly with shock.

Lexa broke the moment of silence. "Hey, I'm almost five minutes past my intended bedtime. I must leave before I get paranoid about breaking my bedtime routine! Bye!"

Lexa hung up.


	10. Failed Feuds Over the Ferret

Hermione walked into the noisy building of Three Broomsticks Inn. It was only noon, but she had to get herself something to stimulate the reward centers of her brain. The idea of never being able to fall in love or feel any romantic feelings for anyone had made her feel intensely unnerved. She had discussed her issue with M.B. in lab this morning, hoping she would offer some insight about how to address this problem since M.B. herself was the writer who thought up every little detail about the Yapillons and their healing powers. And M.B. recommended that Hermione visit the Barksons since she had designed them to have the ability to comprehend the scientific details of their pets' healing powers.

Of course, Hermione was not going to risk having the Yapillons drag her to Draco and elicit their powerful Amorabloom Pollen over them. So she decided to take her mind off the issue for a bit. Hopefully some alcohol would help her stop thinking about her current "health issue" so that she could focus on her experiments in lab.

She made her way up to the bartender, but stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar voice call out her name.

"Hermione!"

She turned to see Ginny sitting at a table with an unopened bottle of wine.

"Ginny, hey," said Hermione, managing to crack a smile. She took a seat in front of her best friend. "I feel like it's been ages since we last saw each other. After you and Harry got married and went on your honeymoon, you pretty much disappeared!"

Ginny grinned. "Yep. I would lie, Harry and I have been busy. In sooo many ways." She winked at Hermione and popped the bottle open.

As she poured the bottle into two glasses for both of them, Hermione chuckled. "Well, I'm happy for you. I cannot say the same about myself and Ron."

Ginny gasped. "Ooh, right. Harry has been telling me about everything you've been going through with Malfoy and the Bedazzlebuds." She nodded at her bare forehead. "I see that your ketogenic diet worked well?"

Hermione sighed. "Yes. But I warn you, Ginny. Do NOT recommend Harry to go on that diet. As a matter of fact, don't even recommend him to take any treatment that will eliminate Bedazzlebuds from his body." She gazed into Ginny eyes with a dark and serious expression. "Eliminating Beddazzlebuds from his bloodstream will also mean eliminating his capability to have any romantic and sexual feelings at all. Not only would he be incapable of…romantically and sexually loving Draco…but he would also be incapable of romantically and sexually loving you. Or any human being in the world." She bit her lip. "Trust me, Ginny. I'm experiencing the withdrawal effects right now. I literally can't stop myself from cringing anytime I think about anything romantic or sexual, even with Ron."

Ginny's eyes were wide and unblinking. After a moment of silence passed, she drank a big gulp of wine from her glass. "Ugh! So you're basically telling me that it's either let Harry stay attracted to Draco or let him destroy his ability to be attracted to anyone at all."

Hermione took a sip from her glass and nodded. "For now, those are our only options. I'm hoping that M.B. and I will eventually learn something about the genetics of those Yapillons and see if there's any hidden superpower gene that can allow them to restore normal levels of attraction in people with Bedazzlebud withdrawal, like myself. This means I'll have to spend extra time in lab, because we also have the Organink Wand and Organink potion to remake."

There was a loud clatter across the pub, followed by a wave of laughter. Hermione and Ginny turned their heads to see Harry on the floor, with Pansy sitting on top of him. The two of them had been pushed over, since both of them were facing Draco and Blaise, who were both sitting at the counter by the bartender. The two Slytherins were cracking up.

"Whoa there, Potter!" sneered Draco. "Didn't know Parkinson would look that good on you. Perhaps whenever you're getting tired of Weaselette, Parkinson should be your mistress instead of myself!"

"Come on, Malfoy!" Shouted Harry, getting up and causing Pansy to fall off his back. "We were just assigned to be Auror partners this morning. That shows we're destined to be together!"

"Shut it, you bloke!" Pansy grabbed the scruff of Harry's jacket and tugged him back. "Draco and I have been dating since the beginning of this year, and I'm not about to give him up anytime soon!"

Blaise laughed. "Pff-hahaha! Pansy, you and Draco were never officially dating. Just 'cause he slept with you on New Year's Eve doesn't mean he claimed you as his girlfriend."

"Yeah," Draco took a sip of his drink. "I keep telling you that I also slept with Astoria and Daphne, and nothing serious ever happened."

Pansy strutted up to him and caressed his blonde hair. She suddenly spoke in a babyish voice, succumbing to the power of the Bedazzlebuds in her bloodstream. "Aw, Drakey-poo. You slept with the Greengrass sisters _before_ you slept with me. Not only am I the most recent pureblood you slept with, but I'm also the only pureblood female who you decided to strike with Bedazzlebuds. So we're meant to be, my love."

She leaned to kiss his lips, but Draco leaned back and shoved her away. "Um, I never chose to strike you with Bedazzlebuds, Pansy. I was drunk at Blaise's party, so when neighbor Potter showed up knocking at our door, complaining about how noisy we were, I sneered at him and struck his scar with Bedazzlebuds, forgetting what exactly they would do to him. You just happened to grab me and spin me around to face you while my beams were still emitting from my eyes."

Blaise was trying so hard not to burst into laughter and fall off his chair. "He accidentally struck you in the wrong spot there, Pansy."

"Yeah, hussy," Harry shouldered pass the Slytherin girl and grabbed Draco's hand very tightly, making the Slytherin wince in pain. "You just got the lovespell on accident, while I'm the one he really wants."

Ginny snorted. She stood up to her feet. "Oh, I'm going to kill that boy." She pulled out her wand and struck Harry's hand, causing him to let go.

"Yow!" Harry jumped back.

Ginny stomped up to him and wrapped one hand around the back of his neck, as if to strangle him. "I'm taking you home to show you a lesson."

"But Ginny!" Harry pleaded. "Draco and I have to work on a case together! We have to find out more about where Volde—"

The two of them Disapparated before he could finish.


	11. Drunken Heroes Attempt to Save the Day

Hermione watched as Blaise got up and walked over to Pansy, who was sobbing on her knees at Draco's heels.

"Please, Drakey-poo!" She wailed. "Love me! I need you!"

"Come on, Pans," Blaise helped her up. "Let's get back to the Auror Department and solve our case before you get too deenergized."

When the two of them walked out of the Inn, Hermione took another sip of her drink and walked up to Draco. She felt a strong sense of discouragement when she realized her heart was not beating uncontrollably anymore at the sight of this man.

She took a seat next to the high chair beside Draco.

"Hey, Malfoy," she said nonchalantly.

"Hey, Granger," Draco replied in the same, bland tone. His grey-blue eyes looked exhausted, and she couldn't tell if it was because he was tired, drunk, or both.

"So our ketogenic diet save our lives at quite a cost," said Hermione. "I'm surprised you weren't terrified of Pansy's and Harry's romantic gestures."

"Oh, you have no idea Granger," he took a swig from his glass. "I thought I was going to have a heart attack when Potter touched my hand like that. Thankfully though, I had already drank five glasses of Firewhiskey before either of them showed up. Otherwise, I would have passed out from fear."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "So that's why you're here, then? To drink away your fears about Harry's romantic attempts at you while you work as Auror partners?"

Draco nodded, gazing into her eyes with a drunken smile. "This morning, the head of the Auror Department assigned us to be partners to track down Voldemort. Blaise and Pansy were assigned as partners for tracking down the thief of the Organink Wand. So the four of us will be working together quite a bit, since we're assuming that Voldemort's presence is linked to the thief's robbery of the Organink Wand." He slowly shook his head, eyebrows raised. "Damn, I never felt more repulsed in my life when Harry and Pansy showed up at the department, fawning over me."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Hey, I've been feeling the same way." She finished the last of her wine. "I pretty much ruined my night out with Ron. I was so scared and disgusted with his romantic behavior, I even made up a lie that I had to stay overnight at my lab just so I wouldn't have to sleep with him last night."

Draco laughed and placed a bottle beside her empty glass. "Firewhiskey, Granger. It may not instill any pleasurable romantic feelings in your anymore, but at least it can block the revolting feelings that you get when you're stuck in a romantic atmosphere."

Hermione eyed the bottle. Her head was already starting to feel dizzy from her one glass of wine—she had always been rather sensitive to alcohol. "Ugh, no thanks. There's no way I'm going to depend on alcohol to survive my relationship with Ron."

Draco suddenly slipped his hand under her thigh, making her squeal and nearly fall off her chair. Draco chuckled. "No worries, Granger, I felt no sense of attraction to you whatsoever when I did that. _But_ I was able to do that without feeling the need to throw up with disgust."

Hermione stared at Draco, wide-eyed with shock. That man had just touched her. He touched her! Hermione felt ready to faint from fear and disgust. She took the bottle of Firewhiskey and drank straight from it, taking in big gulps. Soon, she was at ease, forgetting about how horrible it had felt to have Draco's hand touch her thigh like that.

She set the bottle down and gazed at Draco, her vision starting to blur. "Mm….okay, Malfoy," she spoke in a slurred voice. "Let's see how effective your friend alcohol is at keeping me from vomiting at the sight of any romantic gesture."

Draco grimaced. "Alrighty, then." He leaned forward gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Feel anything?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Ah. I was neither turned on nor turned off." She grabbed Draco's shoulder and pulled him closer again. She pressed her lips against his, this time forcing herself to kiss passionately for a few seconds. Then she stopped and the both of them looked into each other's eyes, both with emotionless, drunken expressions. Hermione shrugged. "No sense of disgust. You're right, Firewhiskey does help a bit. I think I should have some of this before I sleep with Ron tonight."

Draco nodded. "Yep. Better to feel nothing at all than to feel extreme revulsion whenever that Weasel tries to kiss you."

Suddenly, there was a crash, followed by screams in the Inn. Hermione and Draco turned to see that a dark-hooded figure had jumped through the windows and was standing in front of the shattered glass with a wand raised in one hand and the Organink Wand in the other. His Cobrazor was at his heels, hissing and spitting at the terrified people in the Inn, who were scattering and running toward the exit. Soon, Draco and Hermione were the only ones in the Inn.

"Huh, would ya look at that," said Hermione blandly, feeling nauseous. "It's the thief. Draco…you're an Auror. You should go catch him. And ask him to gimme my wand back."

Draco was eying the thief's Cobrazor. "Pretty snake….I have a snake like that. Where's my darling Forktongue?" He looked around and then threw his hands up. "Damn, I forgot I had to tranquilize Forktongue so that I could separate from him and leave him at the Auror Department. Screw the no-pets-allowed policy in this pub."

The thief whipped his wand in their direction, sending a blue beam their way. Hermione and Draco ducked. The beam hit the wall behind them, causing glasses and bottles on the cabinets behind them to fall and crash to the ground.

"Wahh!" Hermione screamed. "Malfoy, stop him!"

Draco brushed off a few shards of glass that had landed on his sleeves. "Hey, I told you. I'm assigned to track down and catch Voldemort. The thief with the dark hood was assigned to Blaise and Pansy."

"Ugh!" Hermione banged the counter and jumped off her high chair. "Fine, Malfoy. If you're not going to do your job here, I'll do it." She slowly and drunkenly walked up to the dark-hooded figure.

"Heyyy…." Draco got off his chair and stumbled after her. "I ain't gonna let a woman look braver than me."

The two of them stood in front of the dark-hooded figure and his snake, glaring at the figure with their drooping, drunken eyes.

Hermione pointed her index finger at the dark-robed thief. "You have something that belongs to me and my lab partner. Gimme that Org—organic—I mean, _Organink_ Wand." She giggled. "Hah. Organink. Why did M.B. decide to give it such a weird name? Organink."

Draco snickered. He was grinning at the thief's snake. "My snake is better than yours."

The dark-hooded thief made no sound in reply. He raised his wand and whispered a curse, and Hermione felt herself quickly slip out of consciousness.


	12. Screw It, Just Do It

Hermione opened her eyes and found herself in a cage. Panicking, she sat up and crawled toward the screen of the cage. She peered out and saw that she was in a spacey laboratory. The walls were shining white, and there were numerous tables covered with pipettes, potions, multicolored flasks, and a variety of other lab materials.

Hermione also saw her reflection on the shiny-white wall in the distance. Apparently, her cage was only one of many cages stacked upon each other, each consisting of an unconscious person inside.

Before she could say or do anything, there was a loud yell from across the room. They looked outside their cage to see the dark-hooded figure walk in the lab, pushing Draco in front of him.

"Let me go, dammit!" Draco was shouting, struggling to escape the dark-hooded figure's grip on his shoulders. "Let me go! My father will hear about this!"

"Ah, but he already has," the voice came from the thief. The dark-hooded figure pulled back his hood, revealing the face of Lucius Malfoy.

Hermione cupped her hands around her mouth to hold back a shocked scream.

Draco looked over his shoulder. His glare transformed into a hollow look of horror.

Lucius grinned. "Now, please behave yourself. What I'm about to do, I'm doing for your own good."

"Hey!" Hermione banged at her cage. "You let him go! What is the meaning of this?! How did you escape Azkaban and what in the world are you trying to accomplish with my Organink Wand?"

Lucius turned to Hermione. He chuckled and walked slowly toward her cage, pulling along a traumatized-looking Draco with him.

"Why, isn't it obvious, little mudblood?" Lucius tilted his head and smiled deviously. "I'm restoring order to this world. I've brought back the Dark Lord, former Death Eaters who had been killed, and a new army of Death Eaters that I've written about myself, so that I can help the Dark Lord fulfill what he failed to fulfill before he was killed by that silly Potter boy." He nodded at all the sleeping people in each of the cages around her. "Muggles, squibs, and muggle-borns shall be under the Imperius Curse, but they will also be injected with this stuff," he grabbed a small bottle of blue-and-yellow liquid. "This is Neuromod Potion. Injecting this in you will modify your genes so that once you are struck with the Imperius Curse, your neurochemistry will be permanently changed, and you will be permanently under the curse with no hope of ever escaping or resisting. No magic spell or willpower would ever allow you to escape once you are injected with Neuromod and then subsequently struck with the Imperius Curse. It's the perfect combination of science and sorcery, isn't it, sweetheart?"

Hermione glared at the Death Eater. "You won't get away with this. Harry, Ron, and I will stop you all again."

Draco was shaking his head at his father. "I-is mum involved with all of this?"

"Not yet, son," said Lucius. "I've been questioning her loyalties lately since she's been quite friendly with some muggle-borns at her office, but I can assure you, she will rejoin us once she sees how powerful we can all be."

Draco yanked his hand out of his father's grip and glared into his father's eyes. "She wouldn't! Mum doesn't want to have anything to do with the Dark Lord's ideologies. And neither do I."

Hermione gazed at Draco, suddenly feeling a sense of admiration for him. She would have never expected him to be standing up to his father like that.

Lucius's evil smile instantly transformed into a wide-eyed glare. But before he could say anything to his son, there was a meek giggle that echoed across the room. Hermione, Draco, and Lucius looked up to see a short, stubby lady dressed in pink walking their way.

Dolores Umbridge.

Hermione's heart skipped a beat as the lady spoke in her shrill, perky voice. "Draco Malfoy!" She stood beside both Malfoys and gazed at Draco with a wide smile. "If you choose to resist orders, you will be put under the Imperius Curse, following injection of Neuromod." She shifted her smiley gaze to Hermione. "And if you choose to act against orders, you will be put to death."

"You can't kill her," Draco muttered, looking to the floor as he spoke. "She's one of the only two people who knows how to make more Organink potion when you run out."

Lucius's jaw tightened at his sons words. "Don't you dare underestimate how powerful we could be, Draco. I've used the Organink Potion and the Organink Wand to bring the Dark Lord back, along with a plethora of former Death Eaters and a new army I've written about. If we ever run out of Organink Potion, I will bring some more back, simply by writing about it."

Umbridge giggled. "Do not take the credit, Mr. Malfoy," she met Lucius's gaze, her smile never disappearing from her face. "Realize that everything you've done—all the characters and wizards you have written about to bring into this world—has all been done under _my_ orders. Our Dark Lord would not be here if I had not freed you from Azkaban and, in return, made you promise to bring him back and do my bidding."

Hermione was speechless. So Umbridge was behind everything.

Suddenly, the windows shattered. Everyone looked up to see four Yapillons—Piper, Plutarco, Pokey, and Penny—flutter into the lab. All four genopets were snarling and yapping, releasing a mixture of blue, green, and yellow pollen. They zoomed around the room, knocking over lab equipment and spilling all sorts of potions.

The room immediately smelled like a mixture of rotten eggs, vinegar, and horse poop. Lucius and Umbridge were surrounded by the mist emitting from the Yapillons' mouths, and soon, weeds and vines were extending from their ears, nostrils, and mouths. The back of Umbridge's skirt ripped to release a chomping Venus Fly Trap growing from her butthole.

Umbridge let out an agonizing scream and ran, but the carnivorous flower extended outwards in the opposite direction, and closed its big mouth around Lucius's head, making the man let out a muffled yell and let go of Draco, who fell to the ground as Pokey zoomed over his head. Piper zoomed in Hermione's direction, knocking her cage over. Hermione grunted as her cage landed on the floor with a crash. The door latched open, and she rose out, watching as Umbridge and Lucius fled the lab, screaming with a bunch of vines and chomping carnivorous flowers growing from every hole of their bodies.

Hermione looked around the messy lab. The people in the cages behind her were still unconscious, the floor was covered in shards and different colors of liquid, and the air was filled with different colors of steam. As she climbed out of her cage, the four Yapillons started circling her several feet above her head, releasing a hot-pink mist as they barked and barked.

Hermione realized that Draco was lying at her heels. He got up and instantly turned around, purposely avoiding eye contact with Hermione. "Nope! Not going to let this happen again!" He pinched his nose as the Amorabloom Pollen became thicker around them.

Hermione cupped her hands around her nose and mouth and turned to walk away. "Penny! Stop!" She shouted. "I'm grateful that you Yapillons rescued us, but that doesn't mean we're going to succumb to this nonsense again."

But the Yapillons kept barking, releasing more and more Amorabloom Pollen.

Hermione found herself involuntarily turning around to face Draco, who was also slowly turning to face her. Draco kept his eyes on the floor, while Hermione's eyes were directed to the side. Then the two of them slowly walked up to each other. Eventually, Hermione's gaze shifted to Draco, and Draco's eyes shifted to meet her gaze. Their expressions remained vacant as they stared at each other, face to face. But there was no denying the intense passion that both of them were feeling.

"Granger…" Draco's voice was rather meek.

"Malfoy…" Hermione mumbled.

"I know it's only been a little over a day, but it feels so long since I've felt any romantic or sexual passion. And now…I can finally feel it."

"Me too…" Hermione closed her eyes as Draco rested a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, Merlin, it feels so good, this romantic passion," she murmured. "I just…I wanna feel this way forever. Especially if I won't be able to feel it naturally anymore."

Draco nodded, bringing her closer to him. "Me too," he whispered.

Hermione grabbed his forearm and slowly took his hand off her shoulder. "We mustn't though," she spoke softly. "We…we can't give in. I…I don't want to fall for you this way. I...I really don't like you like that."

Draco shook his head, taking a step back. "I know. I don't want this…I don't want to want you. Purebloods…should never fall for mudbloods….I don't like you, I don't want to like you…I don't want to want you…"

The Amorabloom Pollen twisted around them faster and faster until their bodies were both blown toward each other. The two of them collided. Hermione jumped back, only to throw herself against Draco again and wrap her legs around his waist. "Screw this," she huffed and pressed her lips against his.

Draco hugged her tightly and indulged in voracious kissing. He fell back on the messy table behind them, and the two of them rolled across all the shards, spilled potions, and gooey liquid. The Yapillons followed them, keeping their circling positions so that the pink mist continued to surround their interwoven bodies. The two of them indulged in the passionate feelings that had escaped them for what seemed to be so long. They were unable to feel all the cuts and sizzles they were getting from rolling across all the broken glasses and spilled liquid on the table.


	13. Dancing Eight-legged Weasels

"You're kidding," Ginny's face was priceless. She stared at Hermione with awe after she revealed everything that happened to her after she and Draco were kidnapped by the thief.

Hermione shook her head as she ate her chicken salad. "Nope. Lucius Malfoy is the thief, and under Umbridge's orders, he has stolen the Organink Wand and the Organink Potion, using both to bring back Voldemort and other Death Eaters back into this world."

Ginny started cracking up and banged the table, nearly spilling her glass of water over her lunch. "Oh my gosh, Hermione! I still can't get over what those Yapillons did to Umbridge and Lucius! They actually had plants growing out of _every_ hole in their bodies?!"

Hermione chuckled, recalling the moment they were rescued. But then she wiped the smile off her face and gave Ginny's foot a gently kick. "Seriously, Ginny. You and your Auror partner should try and address this, because there may be a ton of former Death Eaters secretly wreaking havoc out there. I doubt Draco and Harry are going to get much done together."

Ginny rolled her eyes and took a bite out of her sandwich. "Yeah, well, Astoria and I aren't the best pair of Aurors either. That woman is _so_ gloomy and detached. Sometimes I think she wanted to be an Auror, just so she could allow criminals to kill her since she's to scared to do so herself."

Hermione frowned, but she couldn't help cracking a short laugh. Ginny's energetic and outspoken personality always managed to lighten up her mood.

"Anyways," Ginny sighed, crossing her arms on the table and looking her friend in the eye. "How are things going with Ron? How many glasses do you need to go through before you can let him touch you without freaking out?"

"About four glasses of Firewhiskey," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "It definitely doesn't help me get turned on, but at least I can tolerate any sexual advances. If only M.B. had written about some healing power of the Yapillons that could restore normal sex drive."

"Oh!" Ginny sat up straight. "Speaking of M.B.'s creatures, remember how you and M.B. released some weasels last year? The extra-long ones with, like, eight legs or something?"

"The Weaselmimes?" Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Yes! Luna's taking great care of them—I met up with her over coffee just last week to catch up on her life, and she tells me she has now formed an official dance group with all eleven of her Weaselmimes."

Hermione recalled that the Weaselmimes were seven-foot-long weasels with eight legs. In M.B.'s Genotopia book, they were genetically modified to have the ability to mimic sounds exactly the way they sounded in real life. They were the first genopets she and M.B. had brought into their world from the Genotopia book. It was one of their first trial runs with the Organink Potion and Organink Wand. They had allowed Luna Lovegood to care for the Weaselmimes since Luna had been spending her post-war life working with magical creatures.

Hermione laughed. "So now Luna's got her own dance group with the Weaselmimes?"

"Oh yes, and they actually look legit. She sent me a video of them doing their first dance to the song, _Hotline Bling_ ," Ginny pulled out her iPhone (ever since the Wizarding War ended, science and technology of all sorts had become mainstream and better understood by wizards in order to maximize combat and defensive strategies in case another wizarding war occurred). She and Hermione stared at her phone screen, watching Luna and eleven yellow-furred, eight-legged weasels dancing to _Hotline Bling._ Hermione and Ginny giggled over the peculiar creatures. The Weaselmimes were on their hind legs so that they were much taller than Luna. Their slender bodies wriggled and swayed like confetti rising from the ground on a windy day. Their other six legs were moving up and down in sync with one another and with the song as their bodies wiggled and snaked around.

"Wait a minute!" Hermione gasped. "Is the music coming from those Weaselmimes?" She noticed the Weaslemimes' mouths were moving in sync with the singing, the beats, and the music.

"Yes! Isn't it incredible? You don't need any stereo or recording equipment whatsoever when you need a song to dance to. Just get these Weaselmimes to mimic the song, and it will be just like listening or dancing to the actual song on Spotify or something!"

"Well, I'm glad Luna's made great progress with the genopets we gave her."

"Hermione, she's coming to town to recruit some new members to her dance group!" Ginny was grinning with excitement. "We have to try out!"

Hermione almost spit out her chicken salad. "What?! No way! I'm not a dancer!"

"Hah! I'm far less of a dancer than you are, but I'm going anyway, just to see what it's like to dance with these critters. They're so cute!"

Hermione was blushing. "I don't know, Ginny…I'm going to be terribly busy in lab, especially after this incident with the thief—"

"This will be a healthy break!" Ginny insisted. "Come on, if you're never going to feel any sexual pleasure in your life anymore, this might be your only way of having fun!"

Hermione stared at her redheaded friend. "You do have a point there. Maybe I can invite Ron to this. He's assistant manager of Fred and George's ginormous joke shop, so he'll definitely have some extra time on his hands for this."

Surprisingly, Hermione was wrong. Ron was working late this evening, so at 4:00PM, she and Ginny showed up together at the Diagon Performing Arts Center.

"I've never been here before," Hermione gazed around the spacious building as she and Ginny stood in the backstage area of the dance auditorium, hoping to observe her surroundings a bit more closely, but she was suddenly distracted by the other people who were coming to join them. Pansy and Blaise were chattering as they walked their way, and they were followed by Neville, Seamus, and Dean Thomas.

"Hey! Looks like Luna invited so many old friends from Hogwarts!" Ginny hurried over to greet them.

Hermione smiled and joined them. Then she turned to see Luna and Neville venture toward the corner of the backstage area where the eleven Weaselmimes were sleeping. They kissed, and Hermione was suddenly reminded that Luna and Neville had been dating when she had sent her the Weaselmimes.

"Harry Potter!" Ginny's hard-edged voice made Hermione turn to see the two guys that were trailing into the backstage area. Hermione's heart skipped a beat. Draco was walking their way, scowling. He was repeatedly shoving Harry aside as the boy-who-lived constantly kept trying to wrap his around his waist. Ginny stomped toward them, her face looking as red as her hair. "Harry, you get your hands off that prat, or I'll throw you off this stage!"

Hermione watched as Ginny grabbed Harry by the ear and yanked him away from Draco. Then she and Draco locked eyes. Of course, she didn't feel anything, and neither did he. They casually nodded at each other, and then turned their attention to Luna, who was clapping her hands.

She spoke in her airy voice as soon as everyone quieted down. "I'd like to thank all of you for showing up today. Your presence has enlightened the Wrackspurts that will be accompanying us tonight as we dance."

Hermione held back a laugh. Luna hadn't changed a bit. She cast a glare in Pansy's direction as she and a few familiar Slytherin women outwardly laughed and whispered among one another, making fun of Luna's peculiar language and way of speaking. They snorted when Luna announced that the dance group she had formed with the Weaselmimes was called the Gringlemimers, and rolled their eyes when she explained that only the "top 5" would be chosen to be official members of the dance group.

Hermione fought back the urge to criticize those Slytherin girls. She came here to have fun, not to start any fights.

"Alright, it looks like the Togglewotts are getting a bit claustrophobic with our presence back here," said Luna, looking around the ceiling, even though there was nothing to be seen. "It's time for us to move over to the front-stage for some practice, where the Yugivoles are waiting for us. Let's go before the poor Togglewotts instill too much beezlewarpenheims in our bloodstream."

A wave of giggles murmured among the crowd as they followed Luna and the eleven Weaselmimes through the curtains and onto frontstage. When everyone was gathered in front of Luna on the frontstage, she announced that the first song they were going to practice on was titled _Ko Ko Bop_ , by a Korean dance group named EXO.

"What?!" Pansy's snobbish, nasally voice echoed in the auditorium. "Why are we starting with music from a foreign country?"

Luna met her gaze with her unchanging, calm expression. "I just got back from traveling to South Korea with my Weaselmimes. We've been traveling all over the world in the past year, so that they can be exposed to different types of songs to mime." She turned her gaze to the rest of the crowd. "First thing we're going to do is freestyle dance with partners. In all the dances that I've done with my Weaselmimes, we have all partnered up in pairs, so let's get you all warmed up by freestyle-dancing to our first song with a partner of your choice."

Apparently, everyone in the crowd was already standing next to their desired dance partner. She looked across the crow where Harry and an angry Ginny (who was still pinching his ear rather tightly) were standing together. Feeling awkward, she realized she was the only one standing without someone directly beside her anymore.

"Ah, looks like we're forced to pair up again, Granger," Draco's drawling voice sounded from behind her.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "I guess so, Malfoy."

He scoffed as he stood beside her and gazed at her from the corner of his eye. "Didn't know you'd be interested in doing something like this."

"I could say the same for you?"

He shrugged. "I needed to find other ways to let loose and have fun, since I can never do so with sex anymore. I'm assuming you're here for the same reason."

Hermione frowned at him. "At least that's my only reason for being here. You look like you're here for other reasons, such as to make fun of poor Luna."

"Like I said, Granger. I'm trying to attain pleasure by participating in other activities that don't involve sex."

The song played. The Weaselmimes stood around Luna, miming the sound notes and lyrics to _Ko Ko Bop._ At first, Hermione and Draco were just awkwardly swaying, just like the rest of the crowd was doing.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Ugh, this is ridiculous. What kind of dance instructor has beginning dancers do this?"

Hermione bit her lip, avoiding eye contact as she and him swayed their hips in front of each other. She was feeling too awkward to say anything.

But eventually, the song acquired a more mesmerizing tune, and Hermione and Draco found themselves moving their arms and rolling their shoulders as they swayed. Hermione felt a wonderful feeling of arousal, and she couldn't help but feel energized as Draco grabbed her wrists, swayed her back and forth, and spun her around.

"Wow," said Hermione as they danced. "Haven't moved like that since the Yule Ball."

"Me neither," said Draco, a slight smile forming at the side of his lips. "I think I can learn to enjoy this."

The two of them continued to dance to the rest of the catchy and mesmerizing song. They were the liveliest dance partners on the stage.


End file.
